{"id":214283,"date":"2025-01-13T17:41:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T17:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/13\/jenny-eclair-says-she-cant-compete-with-terrible-ai-michael-parkinson-podcast\/"},"modified":"2025-01-13T17:41:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T17:41:13","slug":"jenny-eclair-says-she-cant-compete-with-terrible-ai-michael-parkinson-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/13\/jenny-eclair-says-she-cant-compete-with-terrible-ai-michael-parkinson-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenny Eclair says she ‘can’t compete’ with ‘terrible’ AI Michael Parkinson podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The first episode of a podcast hosted by AI replicating Sir Michael Parkinson has been released – and comedian and podcaster Jenny Eclair has branded it a “terrible, terrible idea”.<\/p>\n

The podcast Virtually Parkinson sees AI technology<\/strong><\/a> synthetically recreate the late presenter’s<\/strong><\/a> voice and style to interview real-life celebrities.<\/p>\n

Known for his interviews with the world’s biggest stars, Parkinson died in 2023 aged 88<\/strong><\/a>, following a brief illness.<\/p>\n

The first episode released on Monday saw the Parkinson AI speak to R&B singer Jason Derulo<\/strong><\/a>, who was answering questions about his upbringing, fatherhood and fracturing part of his neck.<\/p>\n

Eclair, who co-hosts the podcast Older and Wider with Judith Holder, said it made her “furious”.<\/p>\n

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\n Jenny Eclair, pictured in 2015, co-hosts the podcast Older and Wider. Pic: PA
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Speaking about the podcast on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Eclair, 64, said: “I’m furious, because there are living people like me who’ve still got mortgages, I’ve just actually mostly got rid of mine.<\/p>\n

“But there’s not enough room. I know he was dearly loved and that sort of thing but there’s loads of back catalogue content that people can help themselves to.<\/p>\n

“This is a terrible, terrible idea, we’re all fighting over the same space you know, the podcasts and the telly, and everybody’s desperately trying to say ‘me over here, please listen to my stuff’.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got a podcast and I don’t think I can compete with Michael Parkinson, even when he’s not living and breathing.”<\/p>\n

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\n Michael Parkinson and Dame Helen Mirren. Pic: Rex<\/p>\n

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Virtually Parkinson’s producers Deep Fusion Films, who created the show with the support and involvement of Parkinson’s family and estate, said: “Jenny’s comments are precisely why the podcast was created, AI is a subject which people have strong opinions about, but is AI as scary as people think it is?<\/p>\n

“Is it really coming for people’s jobs? Virtually Parkinson exists to explore the relationship between AI and humans, it simply couldn’t do that without having an AI host, so this is not a case of an AI replacing a human job.<\/p>\n

“In fact, the podcast is launched at a time when the creative sector has been hit very hard and many find themselves out of work and Virtually Parkinson has created 15 jobs, which otherwise wouldn’t have existed.”<\/p>\n

‘A tribute to my dad’<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was Parkinson’s son, Mike Parkinson, who reached out to the company with the idea of creating the podcast as a way to preserve his father’s legacy, calling it “a tribute to my dad”.<\/p>\n

Deep Fusion was already using AI technology – dubbed “Squawk” – to allow live humans to speak with voices from the past.<\/p>\n

Read more:
AI could help more women get pregnant<\/a>
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When Mike Parkinson reached out, Deep Fusion drew from a back catalogue of more than 2,000 of his father’s interviews to recreate his voice and interview technique.<\/p>\n

The company also expanded to create the project, hiring a new head of creative AI, an AI prompt engineer, researchers, guest bookers, podcast producers, and a sound engineer.<\/p>\n

When the podcast was first announced last year<\/strong><\/a>, Mike Parkinson said: “I want audiences to marvel at the technology, the cleverness and cheekiness of the concept, but mostly I want them to remember just how good he was at interviewing and enjoy the nostalgia and happy memories.<\/p>\n

“Through this platform, his legacy can continue, entertaining a new generation of fans.”<\/p>\n

Podcast comes as government embraces AI future<\/strong><\/p>\n

The show’s launch has coincided with the government’s pledge<\/strong><\/a> to “mainline AI into the veins” of the UK, claiming that if AI is “fully embraced”, it could bring \u00a347bn to the economy every year.<\/p>\n

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Announcing his goals to make the UK “the world leader” in AI, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Artificial Intelligence will drive incredible change in our country. From teachers personalising lessons, to supporting small businesses with their record-keeping, to speeding up planning applications, it has the potential to transform the lives of working people.<\/p>\n

“But the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, one that won’t sit back and let opportunities slip through its fingers. And in a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by. We must move fast and take action to win the global race.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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The first episode of a podcast hosted by AI replicating Sir Michael Parkinson has been released – and comedian and podcaster Jenny Eclair has branded it a “terrible, terrible idea”. The podcast Virtually Parkinson sees AI technology synthetically recreate the late presenter’s voice and style to interview real-life celebrities. Known for his interviews with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/25\/01\/768x432\/skynews-jenny-eclair_6798362.jpg?20250113171338","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[607],"tags":[27807,169232,164361,151,5586,236,18270],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214283"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214283"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214285,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214283\/revisions\/214285"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}